Various and Sundry: Now Everything But Photography

Now that post-season baseball and the elections and holidays are all over, it’s time for television’s second season to begin. Here are some highlights of what’s to come:

24 starts with a bang in less than two weeks. It’ll be two hours on Sunday the 14th, and then two more hours the next night. After that, it’s an hour every week for the rest of the season. In the past, they’ve done occasional two hour events. I haven’t done the math to see if that’s necessary this year, though.

When people ask what my favorite show on television is — no, really, people have asked me that before — I sometimes say 24. It’s the one show on television that gets my heart racing and can keep me on the edge of my seat for a full hour, even during the so-called “boring” parts.

There are two other shows that I’m likely to name as my favorites when asked. Yes, that’s a horrible piece of cheating by me, but it often depends on what show I’ve seen last, or what the parameters for the question are. Each show is my favorite, but in a different way.

Boston Legal starts up again on Tuesday the ninth. That episode’s wonderfully politically sensitive storyline sends Alan Shore to New Orleans to defend doctors who euthanized patients in Katrina. Yet, despite the often contrarian political opinions espoused so regularly on the show from my own, I love the humor and admire the writing in the legal matters. Even when Shore’s closing arguments are so laughably liberal, the writing is sharp and his delivery is perfect. It’s all I can do to not speak in soliloquies and mannered hand gestures after watching an episode. Yes, William Shatner is theoretically there for balance, but that’s a joke. He’s still The Shat, though, so he’s always fun to watch.

It’s also interesting to see all the actors from network television shows a decade or two ago get a spot on prime network TV today: Betty White, Rene Auberjonois, Candace Bergen, three-quarters of the cast of BOSTON PUBLIC, Armin Shimerman, Michael J. Fox, Curtis Armstrong, Katey Sagal, Ed Begley Jr. etc. etc.

So catch me in the right mood, and BOSTON LEGAL is my favorite show. I think it’s one of the best character-based comedies on TV, ranked right up there with THE OFFICE or SCRUBS, both of which returned last night with new episodes, I believe.
But what show is not only my favorite, but the highest quality show on television, barring none including any show I haven’t seen? Well, it’s not starting up just yet.

The Shield used to start in January. I wish it still did, because I miss it so. On the other hand, I’ll be happy to have it start separate from all the craziness of the January schedule.

Courtney Cox’s THE DIRT is currently holding onto THE SHIELD’s coveted Tuesday night at 10:00 time slot. It will run for 13 episodes. I believe that we’ll see THE SHIELD return after that, so figure on an April 3rd start for THE SHIELD, at the earliest. After that, it’s been renewed for one additional and final season, which will run either late in this year or early next. I’d bet early 2008. They’ve tried this “later this year” trick on us before and it didn’t materialize. I see no reason to believe it will happen this time.

THE SHIELD is the show that rips your guts out for an hour. You won’t laugh. You won’t be on the edge of your seat. You’ll just spend an hour admiring the acting and the writing while being engrossed in the best gray area drama of all time. This show doesn’t have any heroes. It has only protagonists. They’re all shady characters in their own way, and their behaviors are fascinating.

The past couple of seasons with Glenn Close and Forrest Whitaker in them, in particular, are pure gold. It’s a sure sign that the Emmys are a joke that THE SHIELD hasn’t swept them all.

So those are the best shows on television. Once upon a time, I might have also added ALIAS to that list. In its second or third season, I’d happily include it here. By the time the final season came around, I jumped off. And now that it’s off the air, it doesn’t even qualify.

But let’s look at one of my favorite shows:

American Idol comes back in a couple of weeks, hot on the heels of 24. I can’t wait for it and I love the series, but it’s also a bit of a trouble spot. It’s a lot of blog writing work for the weeks it’s on. Those of you who’ve been here in the past three years have seen that. Morning updates after every episode are mandates for this blog. And this year should be no different. My fingers ache already.

Speaking of reality television:

Grease – The One That I Want starts up on Sunday. It’s another reality series dedicated to finding the leads in the upcoming Broadway production of every child of the late-70s/early-80s’ favorite musical. I normally wouldn’t care too much, but it’s being done by the same people who gave us SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE, so I’m willing to give it a shot. Maybe we’ll end up talking about it here on Monday.

Beauty and the Geek started up this week with a two hour opening. I haven’t watched it yet, but the past two seasons have been fun light entertainment. Speaking of which, when does the next cycle of AMERICA’S NEXT TOP MODEL start?

And, of course, all of these shows are in addition to the usual parade of series I’m currently watching like LOST, SCRUBS, OFFICE, et. al. January can be a tough month.

I should mention here that I’ve officially given up on HEROES. I know it’s a fun show and that I need to watch it, but I’ve run out of time. I deleted all the episodes off the TiVo over Christmas break, as soon as I realized I’d never have time to watch them. Maybe I’ll play catch up when the first season inevitably comes out on DVD in the fall.

But do you want to know what killed HEROES for me?

Veronica Mars is the best overlooked gem on television. The critics are usually kind to it, but the ratings stink, it’s always on the edge of cancellation, and it seems to have found its niche as a cult show. I don’t care. I just started watching it in October. I burned through the first season’s DVDs in about a month, and am now about three episodes away from the end of the second season on DVD. After that, I’ll be catching up with season three. Maybe if I didn’t watch 44 (or so) episodes of VERONICA MARS in the last few months, I would have had time for HEROES. But I didn’t. And I don’t regret it.

MARS is a fun, scary, and intelligent series. It’s a murder mystery with a heart. It’s a teenage romp with consequences. It’s one of the slyest and smartest pieces of writing on television today, with plot lines stretching out over an entire season in a way that never at all feels like you’re being dragged along for no good reason. They really do know where they’re going with a story from the time it starts.
The series deserves a full writeup of its own, but I know better than to promise something that seems just too overwhelming to do. In a post filled with “favorite series,” it almost seems too much to overpraise MARS right now.

One last thing I should add to the TV landscape for this month, and that’s a couple of British TV series coming to DVD. This Tuesday sees the release of a new season of MI-5, the great intelligence/spy series, and Ricky Gervais’ follow-up to THE OFFICE called EXTRAS. I’ll likely have no time to watch either of those this month, but they’re definitely getting picked up for later viewing.

On a completely self-centered capitalist note: If you’re interested in the DVDs for any of the shows I just talked about, they’re pretty much all available on my own little Amazon Store, which I cleverly and slyly added to the sidebar on the right a week or two ago. I get a cut of your purchases from there, which helps this website keep going. So if you’re going to get one of those discs, anyway, why not do it through V&S? Thanks for your support.